The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-03-24
IMPULSE READING.
Mr.. C. n. Montague's Successful
Exhibitions Yesterday.

ond exhibition of his powers OF muscle read
ing in this city yesterday, and his success
must have been as gratifying to him as 1t
was marvellous to the people who witnessed
the performance.
THE OUT OF DOOR EXHIBITION.
Before five p. m. DR.. T. A. Foster, Dr.
Alfred Ring, Ardon W. Coombs and two re-
porters took carriage in front of the City
Building. Mr.. w. d. Buck was the driver,
and following the directions OF the members
of the committee, drove to the residence Of
Colonel Fred n. Dew. The course taken
was round about One the carriage going
down Exchange street to Middle, then
through Temple, Congress, Elm, Cumber-
land, High and Congress streets to the
house. Here the committee took a small
pocket rule and going to the dining room hid
it behind the glass door which covered the
face of tall, old fashioned clock standing
| in corner of the room. The rule was in its
hiding place before Mr.. Montague had ar
rived in the city, and no one except the men,
bers of the committee and the persons in the
house, knew where the article was.
When Mr.. Montague, who arrived on the
five o'clock train from Boston, reached the
City Building, the committee were waiting
there for him, with their carriage headed in
the direction of Munjoy Hill. A big crowd
had collected, covering the steps of the build
ing and extending across the sidewalks out
into the street, which was nearly blocked
with teams. Mr.. Montague was blindfolded
and seated in the carriage after which big
tin pail was placed over his head. He gave
nr al
er in the shape of cross and then taking
hold of the Doctors wrist gave the word to
start. In the carriage besides DIR. Foster and
the muscle reader, were DR.. Ring and Mr..
| Coombs.
| The fact that the carriage was headed in
the wrong direction gave Mr. Montague no
trouble, and following his directions the
| driver turned his team around and started at
| trot up Congress street. followed by a
crowd OF men and boys on foot, and ebout a
dozen teams Opposite the Prsble House a
short stop was made, and then, under the d.
rection of Mr.. Montague, the carriage was
| driven to Oak street. Here the exhibitor
| lost his reckoning, and while the crowd
lodged out of the way of the teams, which
were turning from side to side to give the
committee carriage room, that vehicle was
! turned around again and again, and driven
up and down the street. At every stopsthe
carriage was surrounded by the irrepressible
small boys, who climbed upon the wheels,
hung On behind and ran in and out among
| the horses at the imminent risk of their
necks, for the sake of getting glimpse of
the man under the tin pail. Finally, after
directing the driver through Oak street to
Free street, Mr.. Montague recovered the d.
rection in which the object lay, and without
any further trouble, the barouche was driven
to Col. BOWS house, where Mr.. Montague,
without any hesitation, ordered it stopped.
Then, descending to the ground, and leading
DIR. Foster by the wrist, heentered the house
and inside of minute had found his way to
the dining room. When in the room, only
about three minutes passed before Mr. Mon
tague, still blindfolded, had found the clock.
opened the door, and taken the rule from its
hiding-place.
Quite a party of the friends of Col Dow
were present in the house, and when the
muscle reader had removed the pail and
handkerchief he was warmly congratulated
Governor Bodwell was among the gentlemen
| PAOoSAts ohO @AAs AAObeoSuC wac plCoCubCU W
him. The crowd outside extended their con-
CALCULATIONS in the form of three hearty
cheers, and Mr.. Montague was driven to the
Preble House, where he stopped during his
stay in the city. 1t was just forty minutes
from the time the start was made until the
| rule was found.
THE EVENING EXHIBITION.
An audience somewhat larger than that
| which greeted Mr. Montague upon his first
appearance was present at City Hail. The
committee to assist the operator consisted of
Drs. Foster, Moulton and Meserve, Rev. A.
T. Dunn, Judge Goddard, Gen. John Mar
shall Brown, Ardon w. Coombs, Esq, Mr..
| V. Richard Foss and Mr.. Bates Torrey
| Mr.. Montague said in commencing that he
was very tired and hardly in a condition to
perform his experiments; yet he would pro-
coed, hoping the audience would not become
impatient if his first endeavors were futile
His success was not SO marked as formerly,
though he persevered and accomplished
every test he undertook.
The experiments performed were the same
as two weeks ago, with the addition of tell
ing the time at which the mock murder was
supposed to take place, and the writing the
name of a President of the United States,
| previously written upon the opposite side of
the blackboard Both of these were success
fullyperformed after little delay, amid the
| applause of the lookers-on.
| Early in the evening Mr.. Montague asked
member of the committee accompanying
| him in the afternoon experiment to relate
what took place, and Ardon w. Coombs,
ESQ.,, detailed at length the various steps
taken, leading finally to the finding of the
hidden article. Mr.. Montague then pro-
ceeded to explain this most difficult of tricks
as follows:
The gentlemen having seated themselves
in the carriage and the wooden cross being
placed upon the operators knee, he took the
hand OF one OF the number and slowly NOV
ing around thelcross, shortly ascertained by
the reluctance manifest when his hand was
toward the east arm that the hidden object
must be in the opposite direction and imme-
diately ordered the driver to proceed up
Congress street Arriving at Oak street Mr.
Montague became somewhat bewildered,
owing, he said, partly to his own exhausted
| condition and partly to the failure of all
| members of the committee to keep their
minds upon the exact direction For, in
/ proceeding, he was continuity changing his
subject and drew his conclusions largely
| from their unison of feeling. But after ar
irving at Free street he seemed to get the
| direction perfectly and proceeded with ease
| Reaching the locality of Mr.. BOWS house he
| perceived tendency to go toward the right
and was left to two alternatives, either he
| was at the entrance to a street leading
| toward the object or he was near the place
| itself. To decide this he ordered the car
| rage to advance few yards, when. MOTTO
| ing the muscular Notwithstanding him sud
denly relax; and reasoning that lift was
| street leading to the object at considerable
distance away the shifting would not have
occurred so promptly he ordered the gentle
men to alight.
Inside the house the matter of
exactly placing the position of the
| rule was much easier and accomplished in
the method used in his auditorium expert
ments. In his further explanations Of the
evening he incidentally said that the name
| of his method should be impulse reading
| rather than muscle reading" because he was
| not guided by any one muscle or set of mus
Giles but by the general feeling or impulse
| Associated Charities.
The Associated Charities" of Boston has
recently renewed through the press its ap-
peal to citizens not to encourage pauperism